The Big Bunnies Smiling with Mr. John

Sometimes the giant bunnies just need some love.


To the left you see Martha.  We originally got her back on Martin Luther King day back in 2019 thus her name Martha.  She's a great love and wants to be with us all the time.

Right here is Morris.  We've only had him for a few months.  Martha needed company so we picked him up from another rabbit owner.  I guess he's softer at heart as Cookie Sue wants to chase him around and bite him on the butt.  I guess she doesn't realize that he's THREE TIMES HER SIZE!  Can't stop that Cookie Sue.


He was originally heavier than Martha but I think she muscles him out at the food bowl.  Or maybe he's just kind.

Either way it's time to have them hop around in the back yard and eat more grass.  They're better than a lawn mower!

Bunnies and Family Trapped Together

Hello!

It's been far too long since the Erb family has used our blog.  Time to resurrect bunnyonthehead once again!

I know it's been a while and you're not up on the bunny count.  We have our two veteran bunnies: Cookie Sue and Marshmallow and our two very friendly giants Martha and Morris.  They are paired and get along well enough with each other (although Cookie Sue did run seven to eight laps in their rabbit outdoor rabbit pen today because Marshmallow might have been feeling the love today).

Martha and Morris mowing the lawn.

Martha and Morris are both around 15 pounds.  Yes, almost a regulation bowling ball!!!

Oh yes, lest we forget, we do have three precocious children: Mary Jane, Betsy, and Jack.  The bunnies tolerate them more than us.

Bunnies Irritated at Another Thumpmas Ignored

All those Christmas presents but again the bunnies ignored just like the Jesus manger scenes.  Lambs, sheep, and cows... but no bunnies!  And they were there.  They've just been ignored.  THUMP!

The Kids with Gramma and Grampa Kendall

I surely haven't updated many pictures on the blog in forever as well.  Need to keep the blog footprint alive.  Look at everyone and their smiling faces.

Back for 2016!

We've been idling a bit on the blog but I promise to come back in 2016 with lots of new random information...

Mary Jane, Jack, and Betsy have wandered their way into the new year.  Only Mary Jane so far has wondered what this whole "New Year" thing is all about.  According to her, the new year starts on December 7 every year.  Well, it is her birthday after all so that at least makes sense.

I gave the girls a treat today and drove them over to "Mama Place" (aka McDonalds) so they could have a Happy Meal as well as some playhouse time.  Unbeknownst to me, the toy right now in the Happy Meals is none other than Shopkins.  Oh dear, not the Shopkins.  Yes, the Shopkins.  I don't even know how to describe them.  Miniature shopping items?  Something like that.

Anyway, Jill has now updated the look so I can go back to the website and not worry about it saying it's 2007 or something.  More tomorrow...

Mary Jane Erb: the Next Vin Scully

Mary Jane and Betsy Jo have both learned the art of announcing.  Here Mary Jane tries her first attempt at hitting off a tee.  Betsy Jo follows with slightly better results.

Much Delayed Blog Post: Mary Jane's First Flight

Due to overwhelming laziness, illness, and distractions, I have not tended to my blog as much as I should have in the past six months.  But here are some pictures of Mary Jane's first airplane flight: a brief jump to Phoenix.

Here Mary Jane is gleefully pulling her luggage through LAX.  Most people think it's a complete drag but for her, it was a badge of honor.  Many times I offered to hold her bag for her.  She declined adamantly every single time.

Here Mary Jane enjoys a dinner out with Daddy.  She gets to chow down on a burger, some fries, and an orange juice.  Wow.  Special!  Normally she doesn't respond to close-up pictures like this but she was so in the moment regarding her food that she was surprised. 

She took over the camera at some point and took a nice photo of me completely zoned out by the window.  I guess I went into my own sleepy Zen mode waiting for the call for our plane flight.

 

I love this photo.  Here Mary Jane stares off into the vast blueness of sky and sea.  We had taken off and are slowly turning around from the westward trajectory of take off to the eastern path we must take to get to Phoenix.  The awe that she has mirrors the glow from the window.

And down there is the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  Somewhere down of the far eastern side is San Pedro.  Go Stars.

Trash Truck Day!

 Betsy and Mary Jane had a fun-filled Saturday morning as they went to the Sanitation Festival in West LA.  Trash trucks galore!!!  There was even a rolling, talking blue recycling bin (ok, maybe it was remote controlled by someone ten feet away but the little children didn't know that).

Daddy and Jack beside a trash truck.

Impromptu Reunion

Well, Mister John couldn't quite make it to his 25th high school reunion on Saturday so instead he met with a few of his Loyola compatriots from 1990.  For those keeping score, he graduated in 1989.  There's Scott on the left and Pete on the right.  Mister John is in the middle with the dorky NASA shirt.  Then again aren't almost all NASA shirts dorky?  Wear it loud and proud, man!

Anyway, Scott, Pete, and Mister John all had children running around at some point during the day.

It is important to note that after all these years, the people that Mister John hangs out with most are still his old HS buddies.  Others may come and go but the Loyola bond remains.

Jack Is Concerned That His Father Is a Goofball

Little Jack may be about 9 1/2 months old now but he's already starting to get concern over his father.  He thinks that Daddy is a bit odd.  While it was a Three-Hat Tuesday for Mary Jane, Daddy decided to wear one of her "hats."  This just looks silly as Daddy has a pink bucket on his head.  He then later sang something to the effect that "he keeps in there all day."  Mommy was nowhere to be seen during this photo shoot.

The Mad Hatter

Jack on the Move

While Mommy and Daddy are off conversing with family members, Jack has taken up to crawling around on the floor.  He calls it exploring as he has managed to get himself up on a small table next to where Aunt Nita usually sits.  Upon asking Jack why he did this somewhat dangerous stunt, his only response was, "gooooogaaagooo!"   No words have been more appropriately (are dare I say cutely) said.

It's also a great way to sneak up on a rabbit but I'll save that for another post.

ABCs on Guitar

Every once in a while, the girls just need to rock out.  In this video, they play the alphabet song with Grampa.

Why the Face Pics during Eating?

 Mary Jane, Betsy Jo, and Jack have all inquired as to why Daddy takes the majority of his pictures when they are eating at the table.  They have complained that they rarely look good in these photos and they usually have food on the face (or in some cases with Betsy in her hair!).  There has been no comment so far from Daddy.  He just keeps taking pictures.

Note on Previous Text

Getting ready for the mother of all tests tomorrow: the Comprehensive Exam for my Master's Degree in English Literature at Loyola Marymount University.  After five years, it will be nice to have a chance to complete this.

KINSmen

This literary theory is a hybrid comprised of some of the basic tenets of two Romantic poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Part of this theory is based upon Wordsworth's basic construct of poetry which he detailed in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" (1798) in that poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."  This stipulates that all poetry derives from emotion.  I would take this one step further as emotion, not reason, drives all writers of prose and poetry to create their works.  All may be "vanity" but the inner desire to create has substantiated all these works.  Furthermore, Wordsworth proposes that poetry such be nature and simple, such that is literature written by any man to be read to or by another.  There would be no hierarchical ability for reception which deems that that only the erudite can grasp meaning.  In league with Wordsworth's famed comments on poetry, I also submit Coleridge's insistence of the "suspension of disbelief" which he posited in his Biographia Literaria (1817).  This states that the reader must consent themselves to the work presented no matter how fantastical it may be presented.  He initially created this theory to countermand the post-Enlightenment dis-attachments to ideas not related directly to reason.  Coleridge's theory can clearly resurrect itself in the 21st century where many critics disdain the majority of new works as based on previous archetypes and lacking originality.  Yet this is where the reader must be an active participant in the literary process and can differentiate between the real and the imaginary.  As non-historical, non-biographical works truly remain fiction as all plots would have never happened and thus be original to the reader to create mentally anew into their realm of belief.  To unify these concepts, my literary theory stipulates that proper literature is that which has understandable themes and conflicts, natural devices of syntax and diction, and originality.  Now one may decry the fate of such works as Paradise Lost, The Rape of the Lock, or Ulysses as they would not conform to this utilitarian form of literature.  Milton's epic may be classic but his literary construction leaves the poem untenable to large masses of people which thus render his work useless to many who might otherwise have appreciated the epic.  Similarly, the epic style and classical allusions in Pope's The Rape of the Lock would confound many although the apotheosis of the hair into a comet would be quite the imaginative and disbelieving conclusion.  Finally, Joyce's epic would fail in both manners which, although it is hailed by many as the most important novel of the 20th century, leaves the majority of the readers befuddled after the initial chapter and thus the novel would not be completed.  To put it simply, what is the point of literature as communication if the message cannot be conveyed to the largest audience available.  While by no means should the author's "dumb down" their message, there must be a unifying theory of literature which is more natural and lacking artifice.  To put it in a blunt acronym, KINS: Keep It Natural, Stupid.  In this way, all literature will be "kinsmen" so that we can share it more easily with one another and not fear the lack of reception due to author's pretense.

Plotting

Nothing quite says insurrection quite like Cookie Sue and Heidi sitting in the top level of their cage.

Time for an Afternoon Picnic

Lunch Time!

 This afternoon the Erb children decided to have a picnic in the background underneath the new swing/play set.  It's easier for them to sit about and make a mess as they know either the birds or the bunnies will get their stray vegetables.  While Baby Jack didn't have anything to eat (he still only eats once a day... peas... yum!), he participated by crawling underneath the large apparatus.

At the end of the feeding frenzy, the girls decided to flop for a mini-rest.  Jack's head, still up and about, wanted none of it.  Neither did the girls... they got up 30 seconds later to play on the slide.

My name is Jack, how may I help you?

Kids Not at Play

Relaxing in the Leaves

My hard workers also need to relax as well.  A little play and a little relaxation works well.  They didn't make leaf angels in this video but it is exceptionally cute.

Excellent Help

There's nothing like having good help and here's a good example of it.  Mary Jane and Betsy Jo helped their daddy rake leaves earlier in the week.  True, their purpose was self-serving: they wanted to jump up and down into the pile of leaves.  But they and Daddy all busted out their leaf utensils and worked hard for a few minutes before giving into the temptation of flopping into a pile of leaves or jumping up and down in them like they were muddy puddles.

Dog walker and mothers in strollers all just had to smile.  There's nothing like the pure unmitigated joy in watching two girls frolic in a pile of leaves.  And this being Los Angeles in March... who knows when those leaves will return for another stomping.

Eye See You!

I also like the crepuscular rays of the sun over parts of her face.  It makes Betsy quite radiant.